Wall heater and rear outlet assembly therefor



May 2, 1961 F. E. FERTIG WALL HEATER AND REAR OUTLET ASSEMBLY THEREFOR Filed Aug. 26, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR- Jkmiizh M ATTORNEYS.

y 1961 F. E. FERTIG 2,982,283

WALL HEATER AND REAR OUTLET ASSEMBLY THEREFOR Filed Aug. 26, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS.

United States memo WALL HEATER AND REAR OUTLET ASSEMBLY THEREFOR "Francis E. Fertig,Sedgwick, Kans., assignor to The Coleman Company, 'Inc., Wichita, Kans., a corporation of Kansas Filed Aug. 26, 1957, Ser. No. 680,193

7 Claims. (Cl. 126-416) This invention relates to a heater adapted to be supported within a wall for discharging heated air into a :room. Another object is to provide a rear outlet assembly for a wall heater so that the heater may operate to discharge warm air into the room spaces on opposite sides of the wall supporting the heater unit. A further object is to provide a rear outlet assembly for wall heaters which is adjustable for varying the proportion of heated air discharged through the room wall into an adjacent room and for mixing that air, in selected proportions, with cooler air passing upwardly between the wallsof the heaters inner casing and out into the adjacent room. A still further objects is to provide the outlet assembly with cooling air passages for cooling the rear outlet assembly and for maintaining the wall surface adjacent the assembly ina relatively cool condition. In this connection, it is a specific object to provide a cooling air duct or passage which directs a stream of relatively cool air over the heated air discharged into the adjacent room, the cooler air directing the stream of heated air downwardly towards the lower portion of the adjacent room and mixing with the heated air at a distance from the outlet assembly.

Other objects will appear from the specification and drawing, in which:

'Figure 1 is a broken rear elevation of a portion of a wall heater viewed through an'opening provided in the wall panel behind the heater; Fig. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the installation of the outlet assembly; Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a part of the outlet assembly in mounted condition; Fig. 4 is a bro-ken rear elevation showing the outlet assembly completely installed; Fig. 5 is an enlarged rear elevation of the outlet casing; and Fig. 6 is an enlarged broken view taken in section along line 66 of Fig. 4 and showing the outlet assembly fully installed.

In the structure shown in Fig. '6, the numeral '10 generally designates a wall heater having an outer casing 11 and an inner casing 12. The heater proper, represented by the numeral 13, is disposed within the air-heating chamber 13a defined by the inner casing and communicates with a draft hood 14, which in turn communicates with a double-walled stack 15 extending upwardly through the stud space 16 between spaced wall panels 17 and 18. If desired the heater may be provided with a horizontal bracket 19 and a header plate 20 may be disposed adjacent the lower end of the stack to insulate the stud space. Discharge apertures 21 are provided by the outer casing 11 along the upper front portion of the heater unit, and similar apertures (not shown) may be provided at the lower end of the heater casing for the intake of cool Patented May 2, 1961 air. When the heater is in operation, cool room air-flows upwardly past the combustion heater 13, where it is heated, and is then discharged through outlet apertures 21.

It will be noted that inner casing 12 is composed of inner and outer walls'22 and 23 defining an air passage 24 therebetween for conveying cool air from the base of the heater to the discharge apertures 21. The flow of air through this passage or duct serves to insulate the inner casing and maintain the outer casing and the wall panels of the room in a relatively cool condition. It will also be seen that the outer wall 23 of the inner casing is spaced from wall panel 18 to provide a passage 25 for the fiow .of cooling air about the inner casing. Air flowing within the passage or space 25 .is vented through discharge apertures 21 and may also flow about the side edges of top plate 26 and through ports 27.

In the conventional operation of the structure so far described, cool air near the floor of a room flows into the heater cabinet, is warmed by the combustion heater, :and passes out into the same room through apertures 21 and ports 27. Thus,'in conventional use, the wall heater operates to heat only a single room. Since a wall heater The inner frame member is in the shape of an inverted U, having vertical side walls 34 and a horizontal top Wall 35. Outer frame 33 extends continuously about the periphery of the inner frame and has side walls 36 in contiguous relation with the side walls of the inner frame. The outer frame is also provided with top and bottom walls 37 and 38, respectively, and, as illustrated most clearly in Fig. 5, the top wall of the outer frame is disposed a spaced distance above the corresponding wall of the inner frame. Since the front and rear ends of the casing are open, the top wall 35 of the inner frame provides a horizontal septum or partition defining an upper air passage 39 and a lower air passage 4% through the casing.

In Fig. -6, it will be seen that the walls of the inner frarneproject forwardly beyond the walls of the outer frame 33. The damperor door 39 is adapted to swing between open and closed positions for regulating the flow of heated air through the main or lower passage 40, and is pivota'llysecured to the top wall 35 of the inner frame adjacent the front edge thereof by a hinge 41. This hinge is equipped with a spring 42 which urges the door into the open position represented by broken lines in Fig. 6.

The front edge portions of the walls of the outer frame 33 are turned outwardly to provide flanges 43. These flanges are adapted to be secured to the outer wall 12 of the heaters inner casing by any suitable connecting means, such as by bolts 44 (Figure 3).

The outer grill plate shown in Figs. 4 and 6 comprises a rectangular frame 45 provided with a plurality of louvers 46. Flanges 47 (Figure 6) project forwardly from the rectangular opening 49 is disposed between the studs 50 of the room wall.

To install the rear outlet assembly, a rectangular opening 49 is first cut in the wall panel 18 to expose the rear surface of the heaters inner casing 12, as shown in Fig. 1. Corresponding openings are then cut through the double walls of the inner casing so that the heating chamber defined by that casing communicates through opening 51 with the air space of the adjacent room. Preferably, the rear walls of the heaters inner casing are scored or perforated, as indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 1, so that the portions defined by the lines may be simply knocked out to provide opening 51. It will be noted that opening 51 of inner casing 12 and opening 49 in wall panel 18 are disposed adjacent the upper end of combustion heater 13, so that air warmed by the heater may flow outwardly through the main or lower passage 40 of outlet casing 29 when the casing is secured in place.

The outlet casing is installed in the manner illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, and is secured in place by bolts 44. It will be noted that when the casing is fully installed, the inner frame 32 projects forwardly beyond both of the walls 22, 23 of the heaters inner casing 12. However, the outer frame 33 of the outlet casing extends forwardly no farther than the outer wall 23 of heater casing 12. Consequently, the upper passage 37 of the outlet casing communicates only with the space 24 between the double walls of the heater casing 12, while the main passage 40 not only communicates with space 24 (through the open bottom of the inner frame), but also with the heating chamber defined by the heaters inner casing.

Lastly, the draw chain 25 for positioning damper 30 is inserted between the lower louvers of the grill plate 31 and the grill plate is secured against the wall surface of the adjacent room. The links or beads of the draw chain are engageable with the lower louver adjacent notch 53 to hold the spring biased damper in any selected position between fully open and fully closed positions.

When the heater is in operation and damper 30 is open, a portion of the heated air flowing upwardly about the combustion heater 13 is deflected rearwardly by the damper and passes into the adjacent room through the main passage 40 of the outlet casing. At the same time, some of the cooler air flowing upwardly through duct 24 between the inner and outer walls of the heaters inner casing 12 enters passage 40 and mixes with the rearwardlymoving heated air. The intermixing of the two streams reduces the temperature of the heated air discharged through the main outlet passage and thereby eliminates the possibility that the wall panel '18 about opening 49 might become overheated by the discharged air.

In addition, some of the relatively cool air within duct 24 passes upwardly around the outlet casing and flows rearwardly through passage 39 into the adjacent room. Since the air discharged from passage 39 is cooler than the air flowing from main passage 40, the cooler air tends to form a curtain for directing the heated air downwardly toward the lower portion of the room. Also, the stream of cooler air flowing through passage 39 tends to main tain the top walls of the outlet casing in a relatively cool condition and prevents overheating of the wall panel 18 adjacent the grill plate. Further cooling of the outlet casing and the wall panel results from the upward flow of cooling air through space 25 about the outlet casing and between the inner casing of the heater and wall panel 18.

While in the foregoing an embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed in considerable detail for purposes of illustration, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that many of these details may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. In combination with a wall heater having an airheating chamber and having a front outlet for the discharge of heated air from said chamber, said heater being provided with at least one rear panel defining an air space behind said air-heating chamber for the flow of relatively cool air between said chamber and a wall behind said heater, a rear outlet assembly adapted to extend through an opening in said wall for discharging a portion of the air heated thereby into an adjoining room, said rear outlet assembly including an outlet casing providing a rearwardly extending air flow passage adapted to be in direct communication with said adjoining room and communicating directly with the upper portion of said airheating chamber, said outlet casing also providing a rearwardly extending second passage parallel with and adjacent to said first-mentioned passage and separated therefrom by a horizontal partition for the flow of relatively cool air between said adjoining room and said air space between the air-heating chamber and said wall.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which said second passage for the flow of relatively cool air is disposed above said first-mentioned passage.

3. In combination with a wall heater having a heater casing defining an air-heating chamber therein and having a front outlet for the discharge of heated air from said chamber, said casing having double walls providing an air flow space therebetween, a rear outlet assembly adapted to extend through an opening in a Wall behind said heater for discharging a portion of the air heated by said wall heater into an adjoining room, said assembly including an outlet casing having a rearwardly extending main air flow passage adapted to be in direct communication with said adjoining room and communicating directly with the upper portion of said air-heating chamber, said outlet casing also providing a rearwardly extending secondary passage adjacent to said main passage and separated therefrom by a horizontal partition, said secondary passage being adapted to communicate with said adjoining room and communicating with the air flow space between the double walls of said heater for the flow of cooling air therebetween.

4. The structure of claim 3 in which said secondary passage is disposed directly above said main passage.

5. The structure of claim 3 in which said assembly also includes an adjustable damper disposed within the air-heating chamber of said heater casing for regulating the flow of heated air from said chamber and into said adjoining room through said main passage.

6. In combination with a wall and a heater in front of said wall having a heater casing defining an air-heating chamber therein and having a front outlet for the discharge of heated air from said chamber, said casing having spaced double walls defining a cooling air duct therebetween, a rear outlet assembly extending through an opening in the wall behind said heater, said outlet assembly including an outlet casing providing a rearwardly extending main passage in communication with said airheating chamber and adapted to communicate with an adjoining room, said casing also providing a generally horizontal and rearwardly extending second passage disposed above said main passage and separated therefrom by a horizontal partition, said secondary passage adapted to communicate with said adjoining room and communicating with said cooling air duct, said main passage also communicatiing with said duct for the mixing of heated and cooling air therein.

7. The structure of claim 6 in which said heater casing is spaced forwardly from said wall to provide an air space for the flow of relatively cool air between said casing and said wall, said air space extending about said rear outlet assembly for the circulation of cool air thereabout.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,622,806 Simmons et a1 Dec. 23, 1952 2,642,270 Hollingsworth et al June 16, 1953 2,767,702 Giwosky Oct. 23, 1956 

